Berkshire News Briefs - 2/6/17

Buffett Bought $12 Billion of Stock From Election Through Friday

“We’ve, net, bought $12 billion of common stocks since the election,” he said in an interview with Charlie Rose that aired on Friday. Buffett didn’t identify the securities that he picked.

Purchases of that magnitude represent a major pickup in activity for Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire. During the first nine months of last year, the company bought $5.2 billion and sold or redeemed roughly $20 billion worth of stocks, according to a regulatory filing. In 2015, Berkshire bought about $10 billion of equity securities. [...]

NV Energy and Apple partnering to build solar energy resources in Nevada

NV Energy and Apple have jointly announced an agreement to build 200 megawatts of additional solar energy in Nevada to support the tech company’s Reno-based data center with renewable energy. Completion is expected by 2019.

First, NV Energy must apply with the state’s Public Utilities Commission to enter into a power purchase agreement for the solar power plant. The acquisition will bring the utility’s total to more than 529 megawatts of new solar resources “in construction in Nevada or under review for approval,” according to a statement from NV Energy. That’s a significant gain on the company’s 491 megawatts of universal solar resources currently serving customers.

Apple plans to dedicate up to 5 megawatts of the new power to a subscription solar program NV Energy has in the works for residential and commercial customers. [...]

Why Berkshire Is Betting on Airlines

So why the change of heart? It stemmed, in part, from a presentation that American Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker gave at an investor conference in March, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing Berkshire’s strategy. [...]

The analysis prompted Ted Weschler, one of Buffett’s investing deputies, to take a closer look at airlines, the people said. Before joining Berkshire, Weschler’s hedge fund had backed Parker in his successful 2005 bid to combine America West with US Airways. Through that process, the two men built a rapport. [...]

New life, and a nod to the past, as National Indemnity building set to become apartments

Todd and Mary Heistand are drawn to old buildings. They’re fans of Omaha history. They remain riveted by the climb of the city’s most storied business persona, billionaire Warren Buffett.

So it didn’t take much convincing for the Heistands, who own NuStyle Development, to buy the midtown National Indemnity Co. building upon which grew much of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire.

Numerous structures around 3024 Harney St. were razed recently to make way for a separate and future mixed-use project. NuStyle’s intercession means the 65-year-old property, which until recently was home base for the 77-year-old insurance company, will survive as a converted 48-unit apartment complex to be called the NICO. [...]

Warren Buffett shares oracle's wisdom in HBO documentary

Warren Buffett has long been a source of fascination, and not just for Berkshire Hathaway investors who flock to hear what the "Oracle of Omaha" has to say about money. HBO thus provides a sort-of public service to posterity with "Becoming Warren Buffett," and those who watch the feature-length documentary will feel the richer for it. [...]

Director Peter Kunhardt has essentially sat back and let Buffett tell his own tale, with selected voices from his life and business career thrown in throughout as a garnish. Beyond direct-to-camera interviews, part of the material comes from Buffett addressing a group of high school kids, dispensing homespun wisdom life and money that's self-effacing but infused with considerable authority. [...]

"Becoming Warren Buffett," the Man, Not the Investor

The documentary, which was made with the cooperation of Buffett and his family, deals with Buffett the businessman and investor, but it’s Buffett the man and his complicated, and often difficult, relationships with the people he loved most that are the film’s real subject. [...]

There’s another paradox the film hints at, too: the qualities that made it challenging for Buffett to deal with people are the very qualities that made him such a brilliant investor. [...]

BUFFETT: What I tell people who are anti-immigration

Legendary investor Warren Buffett gave a simple argument for why he’s pro-immigration.

“Well, immigration, this country is built on it. I always say to people that are anti-immigration, ‘let’s put it in retroactively.’ And everybody leaves,” the 86-year-old billionaire said on a panel with his friend Bill Gates on Friday at Columbia University in New York. [...]

He later added: “This country has been blessed by immigrants. And you can take them from any country you want and they’ve come here and they’ve found something that’s unleashed the potential that the place where they left did not, and we’re the product of it.” [...]